Article Dans Une Revue Scientific Reports Année : 2019

The search for an elusive worm in the tropics, the past as a key to the present, and reverse uniformitarianism

Luis Quiroz
Luis Buatois
  • Fonction : Auteur
Koji Seike
  • Fonction : Auteur
M. Gabriela Mángano
  • Fonction : Auteur
Andrew Sellers
  • Fonction : Auteur

Résumé

The distribution of trace-making organisms in coastal settings is largely controlled by changes in physicochemical parameters, which in turn are a response to different climatic and oceanographic conditions. The trace fossil Macaronichnus and its modern producers are typical of high-energy, siliciclastic foreshore sands in intermediate- to high-latitude settings characterized by cold-water conditions. However, it has been found in Miocene Caribbean deposits of Venezuela, prompting the hypothesis that upwelling of cold, nutrient-rich waters rather than latitude was the main control of its distribution. To test this hypothesis that was solely based on the fossil record, several trenches and sediment peels were made in two high-energy sand beaches having different oceanographic conditions along the Pacific and Caribbean coasts of the Central American Isthmus. As predicted, the burrows were found only in the highly productive waters of the Pacific coast of Costa Rica in connection with upwelling, while they were absent from the warm, oligotrophic waters of the Caribbean coast of Panama. This finding demonstrates that sometimes the past may be a key to the present, providing one of the few documented examples of reverse uniformitarianism.

Dates et versions

hal-04914177 , version 1 (27-01-2025)

Identifiants

Citer

Luis Quiroz, Luis Buatois, Koji Seike, M. Gabriela Mángano, Carlos Jaramillo, et al.. The search for an elusive worm in the tropics, the past as a key to the present, and reverse uniformitarianism. Scientific Reports, 2019, 9 (1), pp.18402. ⟨10.1038/s41598-019-54643-8⟩. ⟨hal-04914177⟩
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